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Heat Stroke Please Help!

W

Walking_Mushroom

New Kit
I am from australia, and it is a really hot summer day (40 celicius). My mum found my four bunnies in a very weak condition in their outdoor cage.

While trying to help them into the house, two of them died in the heat. The other two are now in the air conditioned room, but are too afraid to eat or drink. Their eyeballs look as though they are popping out. What is happening? What should I do? Is the air conditioning helping? Please help...
 
I think it would be best if you call your vet for advice if you have one available :? .
DON'T do anything sudden like giving them a cold bath, its better to mist their ears with water to let their temperature return to normal gradually (so they don't go into shock), or this link suggests putting a cool, damp towel across their shoulders: http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/tam/viewtopic.php?t=8058&highlight=heatstroke
I think the air conditioning will be helping rather than hindering, but it would be good to get a second opinion. If the room is quite shaded that should help too.

I would definitely recommend phoning the vet though, they may need medical treatment to help rehydrate them and regulate their temperature.

Good luck, I'm sorry you lost 2 of your rabbits, I hope your other two pull through.

Best wishes,
Kate and Jack xx
 
thank you Kate and Jack.
I have tried a damp cloth and it seems to be calming them down but the older rabbit still refuses to drink. The vet is not open for new years.. but thanks again.
 
IF you have those 3 cc or 6 cc syringe, or any sort of syringe that has narrow diameter which can easily fit into a rabbit's mouth, suck some ice water from the syringe and hold the rabbit with your hand and insert 0.5 cc in their mouth, a pause of a few seconds, and another 0.5 cc again.

If you go too fast, the water may ends up in their lung, and create a small chance of bacteria infection.

YOu can easily feed 20 cc. You have to use your judgement. For a human who hasn't have water for say 2 days in the desert, you can't give a person excessive amt. of water because their sys. can't adjust to the sudden changes. So in cases like that, nurses wet a towel and let the person sucks the water out of it instead.

Rabbits obviously can't do that, so after you feed the 20 cc, make sure the water is sitting right next to them, if they still look stress, I would go w/ water again in 1 hr. or so, another 20 cc.

When rabbit are in stress, they shut down their system, so force drinking of water is okay.
 
One neat trick: just because they won't eat regular food, it doesn't mean they won't eat treats. Wet spinach with water and let see if they eat it.

Get carrot with lots of green leaves at the top, spray water on those leaves, and see if they eat the carrot w/ leaves. Usually they eat the leaves first before the carrot.

If they don't eat them, spray water on the spinach and carrot every 30 min. They might settle down and eat it later.

Let us know in a no. of hours as to what happens
 
I live in australia too. It reached 45 degrees here. My bun was inside with the air conditioning cause he is an indoor rabbit. My guy kept cool today by stretching out on the tiles. He is litter trained so i can use lino in his cage and that gave him a smooth cool surface aswell. If they are in a carpeted room move them to the kitchen tiles or bathroom tiles. My bun doesn't like being sprayed it seems to stress him out even more so i use the "wet ears with a damp cloth" method. If you have any other questions pm me. It helps that I'm in the same heat, so i know how bad it is. The humidity is what makes this heat wave even worse :( !
 
thanks Happy Hopping and Toffeepudding. The heat has risen to 45 celcius here too in sydney..they seemed to be okay now since the sun is setting. But their water bottle feels like its boiled. thanks for your replys.
 
Sorry I havent got any advice really as it doesn't get that hot here... When it gets hot we use the fans and cold water bottles in their cage.. but I expect you have done that already.

Just wanted to say sorry for the loss of your buns, it must have been really upsetting :(
 
I'm so sorry you have lost two of your rabbits :cry: Just continue what you are now doing and maybe put a damp towel on the floor for them to lay on.
 
as far as I know you should soak a towel in cold water, wring it out and wrap the animal in it and put an electric fan on them - They also need rehydration fluids by injection at the vets, but failing that, syringe little and often small amounts of water by mouth, as HH said above.

Sorry you already lost 2 bunnies :(
 
poor little buns

heat is far more dangerous to buns than cold.

no more tips im afraid everyone else has mentioned the ones i know

good luck ...Angie
 
That's right. Once any vet clinic is open, even a vet nurse can easily do that. They'll inject SQ Fluid NaCl behind the neck of those 2 bun to keep water inside their body.

In most place, there is animal clinic that open 24 hr. called emergency animal clinic. For a place like Australia, surely there must be some place like that. CAll around. Over here, even on New Year day like today, there are emergency clinic open, so call and ask if there is any duty nurse able to do SQ fluid injection. 150 cc will be enough per day.
 
Poor little bunnies, it must be awful for them. My daughter is in Sydney at the moment and sent me a text this morning to say it had been 45 degrees and it was awful. She has never experienced heat like that before. Hope it cools down a bit for you all soon.
 
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